


A Game Played By Two

by Irving-Braxiatel (Elycia7)



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 06:59:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3758800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elycia7/pseuds/Irving-Braxiatel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He found her sitting at a café on the Champs Élysées</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Game Played By Two

He found her sitting at a café on the Champs Élysées.

The Morning sun was shining in her dark curls, her face angled towards it. Her red-painted lips were curled into an enigmatic smile, and he wondered if that was for the favour of him or the half-a-dozen French art students sitting at the table next to her, doing a very bad job at hiding the fact that they were all sketching her.

Both perhaps.

Her eyes were closed, her dark lashes standing out against her fair skin, but he knew that she was entirely aware he was watching. Before he approached her he took a moment to admire the proud tilt of her chin, her strong profile, and the way the dew-covered fabric of the white dress caressed her body.

It was quite possibly the finest sight he had ever laid his eyes on. And that was saying something, as he had seen a large amount of beautiful things in his life. It would be a travesty to aesthetics to disturb this sight, as he had to, but he comforted himself in the knowledge that art could also be interactive.

“Tutor Braxiatel,” she greeted him. “Did you have a pleasant evening?”

He sat down opposite her, schooling his features into a scowl. "No, I did in fact not have a very pleasant evening."

Before he could call to her attention why this was, she had turned to face him fully, and opened her mouth to speak again. "I did offer you a dance, you know. You were the one who insisted on just watching me as I danced with every other man there, so I don't see why you are so sour about this."

"I am, as you say, sour, not because I did not dance with you, but because I had to spend the night chasing through the streets Paris to try and find you after you went off on some irresponsible jaunt," he scolded. "Dare I ask, why did you decide to go straights against my own and your fathers instructions and go out in the middle of the night in a strange city?"

She picked up her coffee cup. "The party was boring, so I decided to go somewhere else instead," she said simply, casually, and had a sip.

"Ignoring the fact that the sole purpose of our trip is for you to attend these kind of parties, you should still have informed me if you wished to leave - and you should have just returned to your apartment as you had promised you would in the case of you getting lost." A beautiful young woman, alone in the streets of one of the less attractive quartiers of Paris, in the middle of the night. That did not sound like the beginning of a happy story to him, and neither should it to her.

"But I wasn't lost, and the party was boring," she lamented. She sighed, resting her head in her hand. "I don't see why I have to go to all these gatherings just to dance with men who have no interest in being there either, or are old enough to be my father."

Recently this had been a popular topic of conversation between the two of them, or at least Romana had decided it was.

"Your father wants you to get married as soon as possible, and this is the perfect opportunity for you to meet eligible men. That is, when you don't go gallivanting off before you have talked to all of them," he lectured on. "I almost had the police called in."

"Whatever would you do that for?" She asked, amused by the thought of Braxiatel running around looking for her and stirring up a fuss.

He pressed his lips into a thin line, exhaling in a sigh to remain patient. "Because believe it or not, I was worried when I found you missing. As were several other people."

She smirked and leaned towards him, looking at him through her eyelashes. "And why were you worried about me?"

He straightened, at the same time putting some more distance between the two of them, but maintaining eye contact nonetheless. "Because I am your tutor and you my protégée, and for the remainder of this trip you are my responsibility."

"And is that the only reason, Braxiatel?" She asked innocently, tilting her head upwards.

A challenge.

Her eyes were daring him to follow up on her flirtations.

But he couldn’t.

And she knew that just as well as he did.

“Yes Romana, it is,” he said firmly. He wasn’t going to make this any harder for himself.

“Now, we do have matters to attend to. We are not just here for you to amuse yourself, if you will recall,” he dismissed. “We have things to see before we are going back to England.”

“I know, I know, the parties,” she rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand why you are so insistent I should go.”

“Romana…” he warned. “Best not go there.”

She ignored him, leaning back in her seat and crossing her legs. “My father I can understand, but what can you possibly gain by my being married off to some French Lord?”

“Romana I am really not in the mood for your games today.”

“And I’m not in the mood for your constant secrecy. Tell me why you are doing this,” she insisted. “I am your boss, you know. I could fire you if you don’t tell me.”

He huffed at the suggestion. “No you can’t, Romana. I am, as you well know, an employee of your father’s, not yourself. And beside that, you yourself were the one who insisted I tell your father your education is not yet completed. To which subject, we do need to return. If you come back from France without having learned anything I doubt I will be with you for much longer.”

“Neither will you if I get married,” she pointed out.

“Nor if you don’t. I know that you are intelligent enough to know that Heartshaven’s financial situation is nowhere near ideal. Your father needs the money a union between yourself and a nobleman would bring, to pay off his debt. Which is why you must be married to someone of considerable standing. And since you stubbornly refused any suitor from your own country, your father has sent you here, to France.”

'“I know all that,” she said, sounding almost bored. This was all a game to her, he realised. “But I don’t want any of those men. And they don’t want me either. They don’t like that I’m cleverer than they are.”

“Or perhaps it has something to do with your arrogance,” he told her, unamused.

Not to his surprise, she laughed at this. “It is true. They are all jealous of me. And you have told me yourself Tutor, that I am the smartest student you ever had.”

“And I’ve been regretting that ever since,” he said dryly, not really meaning it. Of course she was more intelligent than any of the other aristocrats he had taught for over the years. She was Romana, after all.

“Now, come on. We are visiting the Louvre again, and then the oldest house here in Paris. Something for you to fill your letters home with since last night’s party was apparently of no interest to you.”

She pursed her lips. “No.”

He was really beginning to grow tired of this. “Yes, Romana. This perpetual stubbornness of yours is becoming both childish and very dreary indeed.”

“Now who’s playing games?” she teased.

“Still no one but you, Romana,” he said, standing up.

To his surprise, she followed his example. “Let’s do Montmartre first, and then the Louvre," she decided, taking his hand as they walked.

He didn't let go.


End file.
